Hello fellow anglers!
It has been some time since my last report.

Fished Pine lake for the trout opener this morning and it was a great day. Fished alone in my portabote, but meeting up with a friend off and on out on the water. He got out first and was having great luck with Rapalas. Yeah, the lake is heavily planted. And yeah, on opening day it is hard to miss. But that info helped me feed the addiction in a hurry. :)

I lost count how many fish I released -- maybe 30. Missed many strikes. The Rapalas were doing so well that I decided to dial it back to a single hook triple teaser for a spell, to go easier on the fish.

Took a bathroom break, after keeping three fish. The second one was a nice 16 incher. Then I went back out and went for round 2. I think I was trying to check facebook on my phone when my hand-held rod got bit. I got the hookup, reeled it in, but as it got closer to my boat, it stopped fighting. That's when some instinct kicked in and I began carefully reeling and watching for a big one. I got sight of it and had to fight to stay calm as I netted a 17 incher. Happy happy.

After a while, with one fish short of the limit, I started to scout a good corner of the lake to anchor and clean my fish. As I trolled to the chosen location, I got another solid strike and could tell right away it was a good one. I took my final fish, a satisfying 15 incher to end the day.

There were many boats on the water, and the public dock was packed as usual. Birds of prey were fishing too. Overcast, breezy at times, but no rain, thank goodness. My buddy measured the water temperature, near the shore, in the low 60s I think.